


Witness Stand

by MobiusStripper



Category: In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Genre: Character Study, Courtroom Drama, Death penalty, Gen, Interview, Sentencing, fictionalization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-17 01:34:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4647324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MobiusStripper/pseuds/MobiusStripper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Perry Smith's older sister and accomplice testify against him. Based on the true events depicted in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prosecution Speaks

**Author's Note:**

> This is quite an old piece that I originally wrote for my AP American Lit class way back in the day. I stumbled across it recently and decided it was worth cleaning up and publishing because, back when I first read it, In Cold Blood had a psychological effect on me that goes beyond describing. I do not think it is up to par with most of my current work in terms of quality, but I do think it is interesting enough to share. For the record, yes, this was originally a performance piece, and yes, of course I played Dick Hickock.

We are all here together today to determine a suitable punishment for Perry Smith. On November 15, 1959, Mr. Smith, with the assistance of his accomplice, Richard Hickock, broke into the Clutter Family home and brutally murdered four of members of the family.

Mr. Smith and Mr. Hickock entered the Clutter residence in the hopes of accessing a safe containing a substantial sum of money. However, even following their pillaging of the residence, Mr. Smith and Mr. Hickock were unable to uncover said safe and money. Even following this discovery, the pair separated and began an unmotivated assault on the helpless members of the family. Smith bound and gagged the four Clutter family members: Herbert, Bonnie, and their children, Nancy and Kenyon. He then proceeded to systematically execute each individual, while Hickock stood by.

In accordance with Kansas state law, if one is not executed, the maximum sentence of imprisonment can be no more than fifteen years. If we were to sentence Mr. Smith to fifteen years in prison, we would be agreeing to the inevitable release of a murderer. A murderer of innocents. A murderer of children. Prison does not change men like Perry Smith. If Mr. Smith is freed, there will be a "next time." And that "next time," it could be you. It could be any of you, and your children.

Perry Smith has confessed to having qualms before he committed this heinous crime, yet he did it anyway. He HAD a choice, and he made a horrific one. He HAS a conscience, and he ignored it. This, gentlemen, is the most frightening of individuals: one who knows the impact of his actions, of taking lives, yet cannot stop himself.

If we agree to the eventual release of Mr. Smith, he will kill again, and when he kills again, we will all be complicit in a murder. If it is not you, it could be your neighbor. Could you feel safe with this man on the loose? Could you live with blood on your hands?


	2. Barbara Johnson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prosecutor interviews Barbara Johnson, sister of Perry Smith.

**Prosecutor:**  Mrs. Johnson, can you please describe for the court your relationship with your brother.

**Barbara Johnson:**  As children, my brother and I were very close. I adored him, hugged him, kissed him...we even bathed together. We were always together, a pair. I think I felt very motherly toward him. Back then, he was so sweet, so vulnerable.

**Prosecutor:**  And has your relationship changed since your childhood?

**Johnson:**  Well, I remember after we moved to San Francisco with my mother, I began to notice a change in how I felt about Perry. But that was only because Perry himself was changing. He was no longer the innocent little baby that I loved and cared for and felt so protective over. There was something dark living inside him, and I started to feel afraid of him. I remember he got arrested on his eighth birthday for stealing. Then it was constant: in and out of the juvenile institutions and detention centers...It was like I didn't even know him anymore, like the baby brother I knew and loved had died and been replaced with this monster. I just couldn't reach him anymore. Then he went away to live with our father in Alaska, and I didn't see him for a real long time. Sometimes he sent the occasional picture for the whole family, but that was about it. The last time I saw him was about four years ago. He came to see me when I was living out in Denver. He was drunk. He began railing against our father, and he threatened me. Told me how he had no problem hurting people for no real reason, and how he'd throw me in the river if I didn't shut up and listen to him. He said he hated me, hated our whole family because we got to be educated while he was up in Alaska being our father's slave. He said he hated himself. I haven't seen him since then. Since that last time, I've been real afraid of him. The way that his mind works, I just can't understand it, and it makes me scared for myself, and it makes me scared for my family. He just has this way about him that makes you want to hug him and feel all sorry for him, but then he will snap and turn on you in a second with no reason.

**Prosecutor:** Do you believe that there was a particular incident or event that can account for Mr. Smith's behavior? Reduce the personal responsibility on his part?

**Johnson:** Absolutely not. That's exactly what Perry does; he blames others for his own actions because he can't take the blame on himself. But like I said to him when I wrote to him in prison, none of us can blame anyone but our own selves for our own actions. Everybody in my family suffered. Our mother was suffering inside, and she took it out on us kids. I'd be interested to see how Perry might react if I suggested that the grief our mother caused him wasn't her own fault. He wants so bad to hate others for the wrongs they've done him, but can never fully admit to the pain he has given others. Don't even dare to suggest that the quality of his childhood might be right justification for his actions. He had the same childhood that I did, and I didn't become a murderer. It's because of his choices that he's here. He chose to begin a life of petty crime in San Francisco, and it was because of that choice that he was sent to so many places and was subjected to the abuse that he suffered in them. It was because he chose to leave the rest of us and work for my father that he was unable to get an education. And when he knew he was in trouble, he didn't even try to get out of it, to start over and make a good life for himself, as I have. He just sank deeper; he kept a dirty face. He thinks that because he's sunk so deep - and that's only because he's allowed himself to - that nobody else has any right to be happy.

**Prosecutor:** Knowing Mr. Smith from a familial perspective, what is your opinion on the Clutter murders and your brother's role in the slayings?

**Johnson:** As a Christian woman, a humanitarian, and a mother, there is nothing I could even begin to say in my brother's defense. The Perry I knew as a child is gone, and I feel no closeness with the person who has replaced him. Not only has he killed, but he killed good, kind, selfless people, children with educations and futures, the kinds of people that he always said he wanted to be, but never made any effort to be. I could never say that I want to see my brother hanged for this crime. Killing is a terrible thing, regardless of the victim, and should never be actively argued for. However, while I ethically cannot advocate the killing of my brother and his accomplice, neither can I ethically argue against whatever penalty may be given to him because at the same time, he has done nothing to deserve redemption from his punishment. I would have stepped in to defend my brother, but my brother is gone, and I will not intervene in the sentencing of a criminal.


	3. Dick Hickock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prosecutor interviews Dick Hickock, accomplice of Perry Smith in the Clutter family murders.

**Prosecutor** : What is your relationship to Perry Smith?

 **Dick Hickock** : Met him in the slammer after I was arrested for writing bad checks. I s'pose I became innerested in him after he told me this story. Said he killed a colored man in Vegas. Not for any reason or anything, didn't even really have a problem with the guy. Just felt like it. Now I don't know if he was telling the truth 'bout that and whattall, but back then, I says to myself, that there's a natural killer. The kind of person that'll go through with anything, no questions asked. After we got paroled and went our separate ways, I ran into Perry in Kansas. He came back in November to meet up with this Willie-Jay from the State Pen, he just got released that month and Perry worshiped the ground he walked on and all. Well, Willie-Jay was gone, and Perry ended up with me instead. We wern't friends, I don't care what Perry says. Partners, yeah. I liked him 'cause, like I said, he'd do whatever you told him, no questions asked. Honest, he was a bit of a burden to me, 'specially near the end. Complainin' all over the place and tryin' to tell me what to do. If I'd the time, I'd've got rid of him next chance I got.

 **Prosecutor** : Did Mr. Smith have any inhibition before or remorse following the murders?

 **Hickock** : Yeah, he did, but not that it stopped him any. Just made it a pain for me. Before, he was all saying how maybe we'd disguise ourselves and then we wouldn't have to kill 'em. He kept kinda tryin'ta back out, but he never really did. Sure, he can say all he wants that it was my idea and I made him do it, but he did it, he shot 'em all. And just because he bitched about it a little beforehand, that there's no real conscience 'cause he just went on and did it anyways. And after the killing, when we were down in Mexico, he kept whining about it, how we shouldn't'a done it and how we'd never get away with something like that. Wouldn't shut up about it, and I s'pose he was right. But that don' change the fact that he was all ready to kill all over again. Hitchhikin' our way back up here, almost got him to bash this driver's head in. Woulda too, if the lucky fuck hadn't stopped that second to pick up that kid and the old guy. So yeah, you can say he had "inhibitions" as you call it, but they were only there when he needed something to bitch about. When he wanted something from someone, they just went away.

 **Prosecutor** : Why do you believe that Mr. Smith continued to display and act upon murderous intentions even after admitting to remorse for the Clutter murders?

 **Hickock** : The guy's a real sick one. That's why he was such a burden to deal with, 'specially when we was on the run and all. With killing and such, you're either in or you're out. You can't just keep hangin' 'round the middle. Perry thought he was so intellectual, so sophisticated, acted like I was an animal for the crimes we done together, but he was excepted because he was too good for that, despite that he did it. But then we he got mad, or even when someone tells him to do something, he just acted like an animal. Like he'll just do anything to show the people who hate him just what he can do, or to let the people who might like him know how loyal and goddang spineless he's willing to get for them. So yeah, he regrets it for ten seconds, but when he needs your approval, he'll throw that regret right out the window because it's more important to him that he has someone to cling onto.

 **Prosecutor** : If released in fifteen years, do you believe that it will be safe for Mr. Smith to be released back into society as a changed individual?

 **Hickock** : A changed individual? Perry is "changing" every danged second, that's why he's so dangerous. Me, I've decided my path, and if I'm gonna hang, he should, too. Nothing more dangerous than a guy that commits a murder without even havin' the will to do it beforehand. You know what Perry says to me in Mexico, while he's all complaining about his conscience? He says that he never wanted to kill that family, but once he was in that house, he knew he would, so he didn't even try to stop himself. I should've shot him then and there. That's the thing about Perry, he's a "nice kid" as any of you people would think if you ran into him on the street. He's got a good, kind personality, more than I can brag. But for all his niceness, he could kill you, and your wives, and your kids, without even knowing he has so much of a choice in the matter. Me, I had my choice, and I made it, and at least I can own up to that. But you could release Perry Smith from prison seeming like a perfectly nice fellow, and then, five days later, BANG! you're lyin' dead on your basement floor, with the rest of your family splattered around you.


End file.
